Secret City festival brings a night of art and music to Minneapolis June 22

Lyndale Avenue South hosts the first of four Open Streets events planned across the city this summer

June 11, 2013 (MINNEAPOLIS) Minneapolis will be aglow with art and music the evening of June 22, during the first annual Secret City festival. The free nighttime festival will infuse Minneapolis with creative energy that engages our imaginations about the future of our city’s forgotten spaces.

The Convention Center Plaza will feature a new, interactive art installation that reflects the mood of the city. The freeway underpass by the Basilica will be lit up with art and performance, visually connecting the Walker Art Center to downtown. Roving video artists will project ideas for future spaces onto buildings along Hennepin Avenue, and Block E will come alive with art, design, and theater. Musicians, dancers on bikes, ping pong players, actors and people of all ages will all be a part of events and activities at three downtown hubs and on the Midtown Greenway.

Free performances and events will take place in downtown Minneapolis from 6 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. at the Minneapolis Convention Center Plaza, the Sculpture Garden/Basilica of Saint Mary area, and along Hennepin Avenue, between 5th and 9th streets. In addition, the Midtown Greenway bike path will feature artists and other activities during its annual event, The Greenway Glow, from 6 p.m. to midnight.

Secret City is both the public celebration of MIMMI (the Minneapolis Interactive Macro Mood Installation), a new art work installed in the Convention Center Plaza, and it signals the start of Made Here, the new Hennepin Cultural District pop up art activities along Hennepin Ave.

People are encouraged to bike and walk the paths between the various sites and make their own art with participatory mosaic art and video projections. Here’s a sampling of what’s happening at each of the hubs of activity that night:

Minneapolis Convention Center Plaza

6 p.m. – 10:30 p.m., 1301 2nd Ave. S.

At the Minneapolis Convention Center Plaza, a new art installation, MIMMI (Minneapolis Interactive Macro-Mood Installation), will be glowing over the city. Other activities include ping pong tables, a bicycle ballet, music, hands-on art making, dancing and other multiple ongoing performances. MIMMI is a large cloud-like sculpture that will hover over the plaza, designed to change color, shape and climatic behavior depending on the collective mood of the city’s residents. Don’t miss the Sunset Party on the solstice evening at 9:30 p.m. with JD Steele and the MacPhail Community Choir, Mayor R.T. Rybak and a variety of performers under the glow of MIMMI.

At the Basilica of Saint Mary, Aztec dancers will perform on the plaza, and the building will be open for tours. Adjacent to the Basilica, at the I-94 underpass, performance and installation artists will transform a parking lot into an art space. Mini golf will be open at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden until midnight.

On Hennepin Avenue, there will be free performances at Brave New Workshop and a chance to see artists rehearsing for the upcoming 20th anniversary of the Minnesota Fringe Festival inside Block E. Block E will also feature the Made Here installation projects. On electronic billboards, Clear Channel Outdoor will be hosting animations created by faculty and students of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Also on that night, City Pages will launch its first annual 10 Thousand Sounds, a ticketed event featuring local bands that runs from 4 p.m. – 10 p.m. at 8th and Hennepin.

The Greenway Glow, an illuminated arts and night bike ride event sponsored by the Midtown Greenway Coalition, will feature more than 40 art installations and performances. The Glow will include a giant LED catapult, a lantern parade over Sabo bridge and live music, theater, and dance.

The Secret City Festival is organized by the City of Minneapolis in partnership with many arts and culture organizations throughout the city. For more information on the Secret City festival, visit the website at www.minneapolis.org/secretcity.

Published Jun 11, 2013

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